No British director was cooler than Shane Meadows in the mid-2000s, the era when he made his most recognisable work. After the sleeper hit A Room For Romeo Brass in 1999, the working class filmmaker attempted to infiltrate the mainstream with less obviously personal films like Once Upon A Time In The Midlands (2002). But his retreat into the world of low budgets and unseasoned actors produced the incredible one-two punch of Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) and This Is England (2006), cementing his reputation as the grizzled counterpoint to Mike Leigh or Ken Loach.

As Edinburgh International Film Festival prepares to welcome Meadows to its special retrospective screening of Dead Man’s Shoes, there’s no better time to delve into his back catalogue. Here are the films you should start with, the deep cuts you’ll enjoy, and the stinkers best avoided. 

The film you have to watch

In terms of its colossal cultural impact, This Is England is a must-see. Set in 1983, it follows young boy Shaun as he’s accepted into the world of skinheads. In stark contrast to its American equivalent American History X (1998), it doesn’t view skinhead subculture as intrinsically connected to racism, but instead as influenced by 1960s West Indies culture, particularly ska, soul, and reggae music, before it was aggressively co-opted by the British far right.

Its star-making turns for Thomas Turgoose, Vicky McClure, Joseph Gilgun, Stephen Graham and Rosamund Hanson showcase Meadows’ skill for pulling spectacular performances from young talent, and it remains a warm and insightful exemplar of one recurring theme in Meadows’ work,  that of wayward youth finding solace in the world of outcasts. The television series of This Is England, which charts the progress of the gang as they survive Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s, is also well worth your time.

Where to continue 

While set in the same region as This Is England, the nameless Northern English town in Dead Man’s Shoes is starker and less forgiving. As close as Meadows has ventured into horror territory, this low budget feature finds Paddy Considine give an all-time best performance as a man wreaking revenge on the drug dealers who wronged his brother. It’s a dark and angry work laden with symbols of menace that creep under the skin, and a melancholy that exposes the underlying cruelty of human nature. 

Almost 15 years later, Meadows’ three-part television series The Virtues (2019) unearths redemption where Dead Man’s Shoes could only find malice. It follows Stephen Graham, a vulnerable single dad who heads into a full meltdown when his ex-wife and child move to the other side of the world. Its uncovering of historic child abuse, filial estrangement and the extent of Graham’s trauma don’t make for an easy watch, but it’s an incredible experience of catharsis and complexity for those who can stomach it. 

The oddities 

There have been rudderless periods in Meadows’ career, particularly after the phenomenal success of This Is England. The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (2013) is a product of that time, charting the highly anticipated reunion of the influential Mancunian band and the fervent fanbase they’ve fostered. It’s an inessential but fun watch. 

Taking the phrase ‘oddity’ to heart is The Gallows Pole (2023), a three-part television series made in association with BBC and A24. A drama set in 18th century Yorkshire, it fuses elements of psychedelic rock, contemporary dialogue and a deliberately meandering tone to create an imperfect but fascinating reframing of the period drama away from its Downton Abbey-addled torpor. 

The films best avoided  

Was anyone crying out for an improvised comedy featuring Paddy Considine, a have-a-go rapper and the Arctic Monkeys? No, but that’s what Shane Meadows delivered with Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009), which feels like a home movie that’s got a bit out of hand, testing patience with a barrage of in-jokes and plotting looser than a broken guitar string. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that Meadows was trying to crack open a window after the bleak two-hander of Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England, but its ‘back of a fag packet’ premise becomes intolerable long before the closing credits.

Somers Town (2008) was another curious misfire produced in the wake of This Is England. Reuniting with Thomas Turgoose, it follows a young boy as he runs away from his hometown for London, making friends with Marek (Piotr Jagiello) along the way. What scuppers its verisimilitude is that it was fully funded by Eurostar, and the train company becomes a major plot point by the film’s denouement, which is as ludicrous as Johnny in Mike Leigh’s Naked (1993) escaping London on a Virgin Train. Still, fair play to Meadows for being one of the few British directors actually able to find a revenue stream outside of the US. 

Dead Man's Shoes, Everyman Cinema, 8.15pm, Tuesday 22 August.